Urban Ecology.

Egypt is not big on Chlorophyll! That’s a common impression that comes to travellers whose experience of Egypt is restricted to its main and central city of Cairo. Well..the previous phrase should come as a little bit strange for most outsiders who definitely must have heard about the Nile and Pharoahs. Egypt is one of the most ancient agricultural civilizations in the World. A tiny bit of innovation by the forces of geography has rendered the stretch of land called Egypt with a unique shape: a long and narrow Nile strip traversing two huge extended deserts travelling Eastwards and Westwards on its left and right bancs turned Egypt into a quasi oasis with most fertile soil. A peaceful population with special characteristics endowed by geography has lived on the bancs for millennia, living by farming the more than one-thousand kilometer- long green flat farmlands coming to a halt by the Mediterranean. Greek and Islamic civilizations altered the components of Egyptian character through endowing the land with a city culture– restricted mostly to the central cities of Cairo and Alexandria though other cities played some roles but just for relatively short periods throughout history.

The bulk of the city of Cairo, which for all intents and purposes, has always been the entire skeleton of the whole nation, with the exception of few cities whose significance fizzled out during late Mamlouk and Ottoman eras, is mainly an inland away-from-the-Nile clusters of quarters divided by many different bases. An exception to the phenomenon was the first Islamic settlement in the area, Fustat or old Cairo, in addition to few other settled areas around some ponds, Nile islands, or Nile Bancs. Thus some contrast in terms of greenery demarcated the leafy periphery from Cairo proper which was , typical of Islamic architecture, densely urbanized with close-knit buildings in quarters. Some fairly reasonable speculations abound about such trend in architecture. Relatively high concentrations of nomads clustered on the outskirts, tribal constituency of some quarters, rigid guild system in the Ottoman era, insecure property rights due to marauding unruly bands of Mamlouks and other bands may have highlighted safety concerns in architecture.

The second half of the 20th century which witnessed the beginnings of fast accelerating half bottom-up modernizations throughout Egypt was marked by vast transformations in Egyptian main cities, especially the central town of the nation, Cairo. By the first two decades of the 20th century, Cairo and Alexandria had already turned into modern cities with a good balance between all features and trapping of modern downtowns and latest-style architecture, and leafy sporty districts. Unfortunately, however, Islamic Cairo was left to its own devices and no long-sighted consistent efforts were done to preserve parts of old town for the sake of History’s memory, future generations, and innovation. Recently, current government has renovated Islamic Cairo. I haven’t seen the work yet, but I think that the extremely dilapidated belt of streets circumscribing the Islamic town, which I pass by sometimes, could have been and could still be streamlined with the renovations through large and lucrative compensations made to inhabitants followed by renovations to the Italian, Sardinian, and Belgian buildings there followed by replacement of the kitschy and chaotic buildings– which turned into hallmark of the city during Sadat and Mubarak’s regimes whose corruption condoned chaos and arbitrariness, turning them into mainstream—with modern ones designed in line with old town, not necessarily in Islamic style, but through modern architecture best fit to Cairo’s character and harmonized to the old town through size of buildings, contrast, and associated business .

Now back to Chlorophyll, Cairo, like many other mega cities in developing countries, has undergone many breathtaking changes during the successive phases of post-colonial regimes. In our case, under mediocre regimes that has failed over a period of 70 years to achieve impactful economic development levels, the city has turned into large blocks of interconnected blocks of deformed cement with no logic in building, style, business, or aesthetics. Meanwhile, leafy suburbs like Heliopolis, Maadi, and Zamalik, have kept some of the old zeal through entertainment venues, outing scene, schools, and inhabitants, yet the proliferation of chlorophyll that had characterized them has been phasing out at constant rates for decades due to incompetent and corrupt municipalities modeled in tandem with the corrupt business models of Mubarak’s contractors. The trend has magnified as of late with almost the complete annihilation of chlorophyll tanks, dubbed trees and lawn.

Attached below are some photos for the trees that have grown too long and branched out on the pitch surrounding my building, only to partially shut out sunlight from my balcony and windows, preventing me from utilizing the associated shutters– which have become signs of a level of antiquity in town, as they, just as chlorophyll are disappearing at high rates—in natural dimming of daylight to save energy, improve lighting quality, leaving alone the wood excellent heat retention properties which when associated with the aerated slits that make up shutters contribute to natural cooling and warming of Cairene buildings located in subtropical, partly temperate desert climate zone. Nonetheless, waking up in the morning with sight of a bush being the first thing to see has deemed the inconvenience about the shutters a tolerable collateral. That my bedroom’s tree has its twigs turning into boughs, acting as rest pads for the Cairene wandering sort of dark canaries which quite surprisingly survive the predating claws of kites that are sometimes spotted high above in the cement city, the scarce water sources away from the Nile. They feed on crumbs and small pests. I am not sure what species exactly they are but they could be either a strain of nightingales, pipits, or wagtails. Anyway, taxonomy is not the prime issue here but what counts is that their chirps which come and go at intermittent periods throughout day are good sources of inspiration for work, a distraction from the hustle and bustle of a mega city with a derelict zoo. Another perk I enjoy from those chirping pads is the hock they provide to ladies who visit sometimes at night and leave in the morning. Sparrows, doves like the one I have attached a picture for, the Cairene crow, rarely some nightingales also visit the pad from time to time. The tree shown in the picture is called Ficus. Such tree is actually part of the visual memory of the city, as they have been lining up on both sides of the city’s main avenues for century. They pop up on side streets and backstreets. Along with Red Flame trees and white showers they have been the predominant kind of trees in the city that were brought over from Kenya a long ago for their perfect adaptability to the Egyptian climate. They are almost as old as the city which infuses elements aesthetic, cultural, and historical values to the Ficus. I have always thought of Ficus as the Platonic ideal of trees: Beige stem, green Rhombus-shaped leaves, invisible flowers and fruits, and rather spherical structure. They are epitome of beauty of simplicity par excellence.

Having wagged a finger at governments for their responsibility for fading greenery in Egypt’s central city, one cannot come terms with the fact that it is only them left out there to blame. It is a bit strange that in this ancient agricultural civilization discussed above, no concerted efforts are made to preserve trees which are often felled for trivial reasons like making space, or for protection as tweeds wither and pose danger from the potential of falling. Isn’t it always easier to butter than fell? I don’t know. But it seems to me that the urban culture of inland old Cairo has taken over with close-knit building leaving no room for expansions in chlorophyll tanks. Another reasons might be pertaining to much larger socio-economic trends. Large-scale urbanization without development, population density, harsh economic pressure, etc., detract from the urges for living where aesthetics are a part.

Such miniscule experience with nature in the midst of a NOx and CO bubbles airing a city life of cement, concrete, howling vendors, and car horns has made me think of the term, urban ecology. The term becomes more and more pronounced in my mind with another even more miniscule experience with nature in a mega city of a developing country. The experience is about the Kiosk phenomenon of Cairo. Kiosks in Cairo are not just vending outlets for snacks, juices, odds and ends. And now coffee machines have spread like fire in so many of such vending outlets. Kiosks in Cairo have become an integral part of a neighbourhood’s life. If anything, Kiosks on streets are local social clubs or next door pubs that instead of putting out whiskey and soda, they attract souls seeking some short relief through quick cheeky chats, grub, information exchange by selling juices, chips, and decking out the scene with newspapers stands. Owner and his boys are superintendents of the hood. They always know who is who and which is which. They are focal nodes of gossip, black market, informal economy, etc. And to cap the top they know about all the boys and ladies and girls and men who come and go. As far as my tentative reflections on urban ecology is concerned, Kiosks play some role. I have attached below some photos for the kitten and cats I encounter at a nearby kiosk where I used to buy my daily newspapers. Why not fool around here? The naughty creatures must always be wondering so. Lots of crumbs, friendly guys who might chuck onto the ground some left overs for the attractive felines. Owners with good business sense, for their part, leave them alone. Isn’t the scene of felines on the kiosk premises somewhat reminiscent of urban ecology?

Kiosks are not the only urban habitat of felines. Cats colonize stairways in many Cairene buildings and they quite often build special relation with some flat owners who might feed them in regular times. Those felines when not getting their lots from the flats, one could spot them anywhere on the vicinity scavenging or devouring pests. Less lucky ones go by on the street and strike it out on their own against the odds of scarce food, bigger stray dogs, and other aggressive strains of their ilk.

Stray dogs are the virtual cousins of urban felines. They are collectively dubbed Balady dogs ( Homey dogs). They have skeletons and body contours that somewhat resemble the species inscribed on Pharoanic tombs. Yet, they come in various colours, sizes, traits, and sometimes looks and maybe that’s why I tend to think—though I am not sure– that a proper taxonomy of such strains is a missed big research project. The poor creatures occupy backstreets in upscale areas and are found everywhere in slums, shanty settlements, and less fortunate Cairo districts. They become active at night when packs duel over territory and the scarce crumbs they find in garbage bins and other scavenging outlets. That’s why they live short lives..poor things.

Animal Rights organizations exist in Egypt and so do other organizations concerned with sheltering stray dogs and feeding those who cannot be sheltered due to reasons of capacity and resources. They are partly self-financed through exporting Balady dogs. Their work nonetheless is exclusive to dogs. They haven’t been able to expand into other urban animals. They also do not seem to be capable of building sustainable relations with competent authorities: the ministries of environment, health, and agriculture. Afterall, stray dogs pose serious threats to people, especially children. Numbers of cases of dog mauling in Egypt are considerable.

One of the very useful life skills I have learned that have helped me through difficult times in addition to being expedient in solving problems is the capacity to turn a shortcoming or a drawback upside down, turning the disadvantage into capital.

Thinking in terms of urban ecology might help water down the lack of chlorophyll calamity in such a mega city as Cairo and could even increase its touristy capital and improve the tourist experience. Modeling the urban ecosystem of Cairo should be an extremely daunting job requiring the collaboration of multiple research teams from various organizations such as universities, government organizations and ministries, NGOs, etc. Work might take several years or more, asit shall include numbering surveys, long-term observations with all the inconvenience involved due to dense urban environment, experiments on interactions, modifications of initial assumptions and layout models based on results, altering parameters like inflows of food and water resources and human behavior, relative numbers of species, matching mathematics with reality. End result should be a sustainable number of cats and birds that bestow a natural hint on the mega cement city through a sort of the construction of an open urban zoo that streamlined with the cement/ Ficus/Aluminum-dominated urban ecosystem. Finding a solution for the stray dogs is yet another output.

A compromise on the aforementioned dilemma would involve replacing exact modeling with literature-based spot studies to reach a fairly reasonable balance for the Cairene urban ecosystem. Unleashing streams of creativity on habitat and financial schemes would complement the studies. Key words include urban ecosystem houses at kiosks, ratio of male to female cats, percentage of castrated males, Ficus twig and brick tubs for feeding birds by trees to control numbers, and balance prey with predator species, eco-material towers or stands for certain species attracted through food farms, building eco-shelter cages for stray dogs in city vicinities coupled with taxonomy studies. Shelter visits should be paid. Cathouses and bird tubs should include safe pockets for donations, etc.